7 February 2024
It is reported that the 100-year-old Twenty-Eight Buddhas festival of Mawlamyine City, which has been suspended for three years, will be held again in the third week of February. A member of the organizing committee of the Twenty-Eight Buddhas Festival from Maung Ngan Ward said that on the evening of February 21, 2024, the Twenty-Eight Buddhas festival will be held for four days along the designated roads in the city.
He continued said, “It has been three years since the Twenty-Eight Buddhas festival pilgrimage was not held. It will be held again this year. It is known that vehicles are also being prepared for the festival.”
It is reported that Mawlamyine City’s Twenty-Eight Buddhas festival started in 1916 from Pa Bae Tan Ward, with the aim of light offerings to the U Zina Pagoda by the Kuthala Wayama Association.
At that time, people used stretcher to go round and offerings to the Buddhas, and since 1946, Mawlamyine MP Thakin Thin Hlaing led the event and changed it into a city-wide procession and it is held every year during the beginning of the Ta po twae month.
